Embryonic Development Delayed in Pregnancies Ending in Miscarriage

MONDAY, March 27, 2023 (HealthDay News) — In live pregnancies ending in a miscarriage, embryonic morphological development is delayed, according to a study published online March 26 in Human Reproduction.

Carsten S. Pietersma, from the University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and colleagues enrolled 644 women with singleton pregnancies in the periconception period in a prospective cohort study with follow-up until one year after delivery. Early morphologic development was assessed by the Carnegie developmental stages and was compared in pregnancies ending in a miscarriage and ongoing pregnancies.

Of the pregnancies, 611 were ongoing and 33 ended in a miscarriage, yielding 1,127 assigned Carnegie stages for evaluation. The researchers found that a pregnancy ending in a miscarriage was associated with a lower Carnegie stage compared with an ongoing pregnancy (β_Carnegie = −0.824). Compared with an ongoing pregnancy, a live embryo of a pregnancy ending in a miscarriage reached the final Carnegie stage with a delay of 4.0 days. A smaller crown-rump length and embryonic volume were seen in association with pregnancy ending in miscarriage. The odds of miscarriage were increased by 1.5 percent per delayed Carnegie stage (odds ratio_Carnegie = 1.015).

“In the future, embryonic morphology may be used as a parameter for estimating the likelihood of a pregnancy continuing to the delivery of a healthy baby, which is of crucial importance for all women but in particular for those at risk of a recurrent pregnancy loss,” the authors write.